We talk about gas prices. We debate oil futures. We argue about strategic reserves. But we’re missing the story that’s quietly reshaping your supply chains, your grocery bills, and your job security.
As someone who’s spent two decades helping companies navigate public perception during market upheaval, I can tell you: the energy shock from the Iran conflict isn’t just about what you see at the pump. It’s about what you don’t see, the cascading costs hiding in plain sight.
The Unsexy Casualties
Let’s start with something nobody’s discussing: fertilizer prices are up 30-40%. That means a farmer is spending thousands more per season, which gets passed to food distributors, then to grocers, then to you. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has already documented 20% increases in staple food prices in vulnerable regions. But in the U.S., we’re still acting surprised when lettuce costs spike.
Or consider airline routes — Air Canada suspended flights to JFK for nearly five months — jet fuel doubled and the math no longer worked. That sounds like an airline problem. It’s not. It’s a supply chain problem directly impacting you beyond your annual family vacation. Suspended routes mean delays in manufacturing components and shipments of perishables, equating to inventory costs that manufacturers pass on to consumers.
Then there’s the one nobody wants to say out loud: maritime insurance and shipping costs have exploded. Tankers avoiding the Strait of Hormuz, which handles 20% of global oil and Liquified Natural Gas, are taking longer routes. Longer routes mean higher insurance premiums, higher fuel costs for shipping, and longer delivery times. Every company with international supply chains is bleeding money quietly.
What’s Really Happening in the Boardroom
Here’s what concerns me most: too many companies are treating this as temporary noise rather than a structural shift requiring serious stakeholder communication.
The Producer Price Index jumped 4% year-over-year in March, with energy-specific prices up 8.5%. That’s the largest wholesale inflation spike in three years. For manufacturers, that’s not a rounding error. That’s the difference between profitability and losses. And if you’re not explaining why costs are rising, your customers, employees, and investors will fill in the narrative themselves.
The International Monetary Fund has already lowered global growth forecasts. The European Central Bank is warning of potential stagflation. Germany and Italy could face technical recessions by the end of the year. That’s not doom-saying — that’s the consensus from the world’s largest economic institutions.
Where Public Affairs Can Make a Difference
I want to be direct: most corporate communications teams should already be taking proactive action.
Instead, many are waiting for direction from finance. Finance is waiting for the conflict to resolve. Meanwhile, your stakeholders — employees, customers, shareholders, regulators — are drawing their own conclusions, which are rarely favorable to companies perceived as either profiteering, ignoring the obvious, or carrying on as if nothing has changed.
Here’s What Needs to Change
1. Get ahead of the narrative
Don’t wait until your earnings call to explain cost increases. Don’t wait for an activist investor to raise the issue. Publish now. Explain the energy shock’s impact on your specific business. Show that you understand the Strait of Hormuz closure, the South Pars field attack, and the LNG supply constraints. Demonstrate that you’re not making excuses, you’re being transparent about a shared challenge.
2. Map your vulnerability and share it
Your supply chain is more exposed than you think. If you source fertilizer-dependent materials, rely on international shipping, have energy-intensive manufacturing, or depend on air freight, your stakeholders deserve to know how you’re adapting. This is about long-term credibility.
3. Prepare your workforce
Your employees are paying $3.70+ per gallon at the pump (in many U.S. markets, it’s higher). Their household energy bills are rising. Food costs are spiking. If your company is raising prices or freezing hiring, they’ll understand why if you explain the macro context. But you have to do it proactively, not after morale tanks.
4. Reframe the timeline
Energy Secretary Wright has warned that U.S. gas prices may remain above $3 per gallon through the end of 2026. That’s not a short-term shock. That’s the operating environment for the next eight months minimum. Companies need to stop treating this as temporary and start planning for the long term.
5. Don’t politicize, contextualize
This isn’t about left vs. right. It’s about a geopolitical conflict that disrupted 20% of global oil supply and triggered the largest strategic reserve release in IEA history. That’s a fact. Your job is to help stakeholders understand what it means for them, for your business, and for your sector.
The Stakes
I’ve watched companies navigate recessions, supply chain crises, and market crashes. The ones that emerge strongest aren’t the ones that hid the truth. They’re the ones who explained it first, showed their work, and demonstrated they had a plan.
Right now, we’re six weeks into the Iran conflict, with no clear resolution in sight. Energy prices are volatile. Global growth forecasts are being revised downward. Inflation is on the rise. Food security is at risk in vulnerable regions. Airlines are canceling routes. Manufacturers are absorbing costs.
And most corporate communications teams are still waiting for someone else to take the lead.
Don’t be that company. Get your public affairs professionals in a room with finance, operations, and supply chain. Map the exposure. Draft the narrative. Prepare your stakeholders. Move now, before the market forces you to move later.
The companies that will survive this energy shock and maintain stakeholder trust won’t be the ones that pretended it wasn’t happening. They’ll be the ones that said it plainly, explained the consequences, and showed they were thinking three steps ahead.
The invisible tax is coming. Make sure your stakeholders know you see it.
CR Wooters is a Principal at SKDK, where he advises Fortune 500 companies on stakeholder communication during market volatility and geopolitical disruption.